I doubt any of you will enjoy reading this as much as we do (trips down memory lane et al.), but feel free to prove me wrong.
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The year gone by – 2010 for Kevin, Emily and Brendan
... and what a year it’s been. Lots of new adventures, lots of hard work, lots of hellos, a few goodbyes, and lots of fun family play time.
Our year started with stress over passports. The UK passport office took an extended amount of time to grant me “Indefinite Leave to Remain”, hanging onto my passport for over 3 months. It meant that I had to miss out on two important trips. First, I missed what was supposed to be a family adventure in the south of France to look after Emily’s god-mother’s house. Emily made the most of it, working hard on her Ph.D. in the solitude of the French countryside, and Brendan joined her for a few weeks.
I also wasn’t able to return to Canada to say goodbye to a wonderful friend, Patricia, and to be there for her family. It's hard to believe its been almost a year since she passed, and we all miss her.
My parents flew over in February to visit their grandson and to keep us company while Emily was in France. We had a wonderful visit sharing Brendan's passions (planes, swimming), enjoying English life (if you can in the winter) and generally catching up.
While they were here, my dad and I flew to Northern Ireland for a short 3 day trip to celebrate the return of my passport. One of the days we were there, amidst our meandering self-tour, we decided to enquire about family history. It was on a whim but we were in Donegal after all. What started with an innocent inquiry at a tourist information stop turned into a civil office record hunting, mad snowy dashing, family history adventure... that culminated in the two of us sitting in a pub over-looking the hill-side where my great-grandfather was raised sharing a pint with 4 local McGlynns. We went back to Cambridge in awe of our findings and soon shipped my folks home after a lovely visit.
The Spring and Summer were dominated with sport. Ice hockey dominated March, as has become tradition, with another successful Varsity match against Oxford, and a return visit to the Stahlpokal tournament in Austria. Brendan got back into swimming and riding is balance bike all over Cambridge (mind your feet!). And finally, Emily earned a spot on the college rowing team despite missing over a month while in France.
The sport theme continued over to the London 10K which I ran in April, as well as a few other runs over the summer. Running seems to be a personal theme this year, and I’ve now signed up to run the London Marathon in April 2011 in support of Lupus UK.
For those of you who don’t know, Emily suffers from Lupus, a disease of the immune system. For some, the disease can be life-threatening and there is no cure. Please sponsor my run for this important cause by visiting this website: http://www.justgiving.com/Kevin-McGlynn-Marathon. Your donations help many men and women, including Emily. Wish me luck!
As the weather started to warm, not surprisingly, the visitors started arriving. First Tara came in the middle of her whirlwind European adventure. It was lovely to catch up with her, and we got to take her to the Jesus College May Ball. May Balls are elaborate, extravagant parties that are an Oxford & Cambridge tradition. Tara has now been to a May Ball in both Oxford and Cambridge... well done sis! Tara also got a chance to watch Emily partake in the May bumps... the college rowing event of the year. Emily's boat did quite well, being bumped only once, and bumping back another day (check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Bumps if you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about). Next, Emily's dad came with whom we had a wonderful visit and spent some wonderful times at the nearby Duxford war plane museum and our favourite Norfolk beach. Finally Rob Dietz arrived to put a cap on his Spring adventures in Europe. Rob and Bren were two peas in a pod.
Once term time finally ended, I started a new job with Cambridge University doing web consulting. It's a fun project and extremely local (I cycle or even walk sometimes) and keeps me busy (not to mention the bills paid). Because of the new job, the inevitable had to happen. We finally moved Brendan into a nursery. Not surprisingly, he took to it like a duck to water. He loves the facility, gets on well with the other children, and usually has so much fun he can't even squeeze in a nap.
As the summer passed, we got into a good routine of working during the day, enjoying the sunshine and Cambridge green spaces during the evenings, and taking advantage of the weekends for family fun. Between beach trips, museum hunting in London, hiking trips to Wales and air shows throughout the UK, we enjoyed a truly great summer. Speaking of air shows, our little man has truly shown a love of all things relating to aviation. We quickly discovered that the occasional air show wasn't enough to whet his appetite for planes, so we invested in an annual family pass at the nearby Duxford war plane museum. It's easily been the best investment we've made all year, as we've already been at least a dozen times. Brendan can't get enough. If you find yourself in his company, and ask him about his favourite planes, be prepared to sit through a lengthy roll-call of all major British, German and even Japanese WWII fighter planes. Watching him become engrossed in something with such passion has been a joy.
Speaking of becoming engrossed, Brendan started up his swimming lessons again. By the time September rolled along, he was swimming without any flotation aids... all before the age of 3. He has always enjoyed swimming and he doesn't seem to be slowing at all.
As the autumn term (Michaelmas term) started up, the action kicked into high gear. I had my second inline skating marathon in Berlin at the end of September, Emily started back into rowing again... but most importantly, Emily really started ramping up to finish her Ph.D. As I write this, she is crossing the T's and dotting the I's to submit her dissertation before Christmas. It's been a long time coming and we're very proud of her. I can't wait to read it when she's finished... assuming I understand it all. Be sure to think of her as she submits during the holiday season and pass on your congrats when you can.
The last big event of our year was without question, our trip back to North America in late October. It started with a week in Florida at a beautiful house owned by a family friend, Lyn. The house was in a quiet neighbourhood, under the warm Florida sun, with its own swimming pool... of which we couldn't get Grandpa or Brendan out of. It was a wonderful time to catch up with my folks and Tara, and let them see how much Bren has grown... and of course, allow them to spoil him rotten and listen to countless stories about planes.
The second week of our trip was spent back in Toronto visiting friends and family, including Grandpa Chris and Auntie Chloe. Brendan had his 3rd birthday party (I can't believe he's 3 already) with lots of little ones from the rapidly growing families of our friends back in Canada. Sheesh... you go away for awhile and everyone multiplies! ;)
The other Canadian highlight for Brendan was definitely Halloween. It's not much of an event in England, so we were worried it might be a bit overwhelming for him. Our fears were unfounded, as he quickly got into it. If he had his way, he'd still be out there “trick or treating”.
Once back in Cambridge, we both started working hard... Emily insanely so... and will hopefully have a very large Christmas present (Emily submitting her Ph.D.) to celebrate. With lots of term time fun (hockey, rowing, college life), swimming heroics and ramping up for Christmas, our year is coming to an end with lots of happy memories, a few sad ones and many reasons to be thankful over the holiday season.
We love you all and hope that you've all had a wonderful year. We hope that we can share some laughs and love with each of you in the new year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
With Love, from Kevin, Emily & Brendan
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